Duplicate Hair Files Problem

[The_Vampiress]

I'm having a problem with my hair files in Create a Family and it's really confusing me so I'm hoping some of you wise simmers on here can help me understand the problem and tell me what I have to do to fix it.

When looking through the different hairs I'm seeing allot of the same hairs and allot of them look like the original Maxis ones. But some of them for some reason when I click on them they are hairs I have downloaded, I have about 7000 hairs and I want to get rid of the duplicates but without losing any of the hairs I downloaded.

Can someone tell me why the picture of the hairs looks like the maxis hairs on some and also why I have all these duplicates and lastly how I can remove them safely.

Thanks for any help, much appreciated :smile:

[MissDoh]

The one showing as Maxis ones means you do not have the mesh that go with it.

You can use Delphy's download organiser program found at the MTS2 site to scan for duplicates and orphan files among other things.  It is a great tool.

[Theraven]

sometimes, hairfiles/clothfiles might show up as maxis - but they are the ones you downloaded, and they work as they should. then, it's the thumbnail picture that is not updated yet. I sometimes have that problem in my game.

[Sita]

And I think sometimes folks making hairs only change one age-state. That leaves the remaining ages in the hair bin as if they were new...

Sorry for necromancy but I think it needs saying

[rwills]

Clean Installer is a handy tool for finding duplicate files and getting rid of them.

Just wrote a lengthy reply which includes data about Clean Installer, so just going to copy/paste the relevant part again here:

If you don't already have it, download and install Clean Installer:

http://sims2pack.modthesims2.com/index.php?page=1

Run Clean Installer and let it scan your Downloads file and finish generating the list of files.

Then click the MD5 tab in Clean Installer - this will group files so you can find duplicates more easily.

As you scroll down the list, look for items highlighted in pink - those are duplicates. Remove them all but one from each group.

Then click the Type tab in Clean Installer, and scroll down the type column to the 'E' section, and see if there are any files listed as "Empty Package.' Delete any listed as Empty Package.

Note: Clean Installer also highlights any hacks in red. This is not a danger sign, just a highlighting. Don't delete the red items, unless you don't want the hacks. Custom lots, especially, can come with included hacks which you may not want or which may be incompatible with your version of the game.

Be aware that if you Remove a file using Clean Installer - it is gone - there is no Undo to get it back.


As for the Thumbnails, you can try this:

Open your My Documents--EA Games--The Sims 2--Thumbnails folder.

Delete everything in the folder (but not the folder itself).

The game will generate all new thumbnails for you as you access any part of the game which uses thumbnails (things may run a bit slower than normal the first time only, as the new thumbnails are generated).

As someone above mentioned, you can also use Delphy's Organizer, but it can and does also give false positives, so bear that in mind when using it.